One Second
by Shihanne
Summary: [DF] He hesitated one second too long, and that one second was enough to convince him that there was no way he'd make it even if he ran as fast as he could.


_(A/N: I don't usually put my author's notes on anywhere but my blog, but I feel like some questions are going to come up regarding this fic, so please check out my blog post author's notes for this fic if you have any.)_

* * *

He never made it to the elevator.

Kimura Kouichi's head was swimming with things - he hadn't really been thinking coherently during the last five minutes, only doing things as they came. Kouji was on the train for some reason, he was running fast and it was hard to keep up with him, and suddenly he was running towards an elevator. Kouichi hadn't really been thinking of the consequences of making it to the elevator, like Kouji seeing him there and freaking out at the boy with his face.

But he never made it to the elevator.

Kouichi had two options: one, wait there and hope that Kouji would return, go back to his place tomorrow and start over again – and two, attempt to take the nearby stairs and follow him down, despite whatever consequences might happen. For all he knew, he'd get all the way down there and Kouji would have gone off somewhere, or (and he didn't know if he wanted this or not) he'd run into Kouji and there would be the confrontation he feared.

Kouichi hesitated.

He hesitated one second too long, and that one second was enough to convince him that there was no way he'd make it even if he ran as fast as he could. As he stood motionless at the top of the stairs, he tried to reassure himself: _I'll see him tomorrow. I'll start over tomorrow and see him, and I'll finally talk to him._

* * *

It was impossible without the Spirits of Darkness. They were useless to everyone; Cherubimon couldn't find a proper host for them, even after having his servants search far and wide for Digimon who looked suitable as candidates. The Spirits simply wouldn't accept any of them. It seemed that even after bending the Spirit to his will, it still seemed picky about wanting an owner; not only did it want someone with a suitable darkness in their heart (there were plenty of those out there), but it also demanded an owner who could thoroughly understand darkness and know how to control it.

With no one to act as the Warrior of Darkness, Cherubimon was forced to keep the Spirits sealed. Even after Cherubimon's four servants were defeated, and even after those pesky human children approached the Rose Morning Star, he still couldn't lift the seal. Cherubimon's plan was to take care of the kids and claim their Spirits anyway, hoping that he could find a host for the Spirits of Darkness later so that he could lift the seal and steal them back.

What Cherubimon hadn't expected was the children's desire to live and keep fighting. They successfully freed Ophanimon, and although she wasn't able to save him from his corrupted state, she managed to upgrade two of the boys' Digivices to be able to process five Spirits at once. But Cherubimon still had an advantage: he still had the Spirits of Darkness, unusable as they were, and only one of the children was able to utilize hyper spirit evolution.

With the main line of defense being KaiserGreymon, BeoWolfmon, and Blitzmon, the children didn't stand a chance, and at the last moment Takuya was forced to have everyone retreat in order to save everyone's lives. They barely managed to escape, and Cherubimon continued to collect the Digital World's data as planned...

...until LordKnightmon and Dynasmon appeared, stabbed Cherubimon in the back, and took all of his data.

* * *

Kouichi was at the ticket machine, figuring out how to get home, when it happened: a large rumble from below followed by the nearby elevator suddenly exploding. The explosion startled him – not just because of the suddenness of the explosion, but also from the fact he knew that Kouji had gone down that elevator. The resulting events happened so quickly that he couldn't keep track of it; the visual screens around him were twitching and showing some message, he was being knocked back by the explosion, he could see a faint outline of what looked like a man...

"We won't let you go any further!"

When the smoke cleared, Kouichi could see five figures approaching and attacking what looked like a half-angelic, half-demonic figure. They didn't look human, there was something very distinctly inhuman about them, and yet Kouichi somehow had this feeling that they wanted to save everyone. And so, he watched.

"Oh? You've come out of hiding. I thought you'd died after that last scuffle, but it seems you managed to run away again like the cowards you are. But it doesn't matter, because I've already made it this far. I'll remake this world, and you'll be the sacrifices to start it off."

"As if we'll let you do that!"

The other people around Kouichi were talking in a panic – _remake the world? Sacrifices? What's going on? Who is this guy?_ – but for some reason, Kouichi himself wasn't thinking of that. Even though he had no clue what was going on either, the resounding thought in his head was that, at all costs, the five warriors who were defending against this demonic angel had to win no matter what.

As it turned out, it was far too much to hope for.

All it took was one attack of Dead or Alive, and the five Legendary Warriors were five humans. This caused even more of a ruckus among the crowd, considering that those five "creatures" had turned into human children, but Kouichi still wasn't concentrating because he was now able to see what – or, more accurately, who – was up there. He hadn't been able to fully comprehend it when the incident had first started, but he realized that from the moment those warriors had appeared, he'd subconsciously started dreading that something like this was going to happen...he didn't know how he'd known, but all it took was intuition and the sight of the elevator and he'd sensed who was among the group of five.

Another Dead or Alive attack hit.

Kouichi, having hit his breaking point, threw all abandon out the window and rushed towards the scene, not caring that he had to push people in the crowd away or that the demonic angel would notice him. He could see the five children falling to the ground, but there was one that he was focusing on. He arrived just in time to see the boy hit the ground in front of him.

One pair of eyes met another identical pair. Kouichi couldn't read the boy's expression – was it recognition? Fear? Confusion? The only thing he could tell was that there was a reaction, that the boy could see Kouichi in front of him. But there was nothing Kouichi could do for him as his body went stiff.

"No..."

There were other things going on at the moment, with people flying around in a panic hoping to avoid the fate of the children and the demonic angel approaching Kouichi as his next victim to subjugate. But Kouichi couldn't concentrate on that, because the only thing he could think about was that right in front of him was the dead body of Minamoto Kouji.


End file.
